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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

JAperson said:
Wicker Man really does seem to have some downtime issues' I do wonder why though. GCI's aren't known to be particularly unreliable. I do wonder If it's more the effects than the ride itself and they stop the ride to fix them. If that's the case I'd rather the just run the ride without them until they get a chance to fix them. If it is indeed the ride I hope they do get whatever I causing the problem sorted soon as it really shouldn't be having this much downtime, very strange indeed. There was rumours of Merlin adding more GCI's however I wouldn't be surprised if they have been cancelled due to the issue's they've been having with Wicker Man.
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Yeah, makes sense. I am visiting next week and it's the only ride I've never been on (not been to the park for about 5 years) so I need to make sure I get a good ride on it!
 
JAperson said:
Wicker Man really does seem to have some downtime issues' I do wonder why though. GCI's aren't known to be particularly unreliable. I do wonder If it's more the effects than the ride itself and they stop the ride to fix them. If that's the case I'd rather the just run the ride without them until they get a chance to fix them. If it is indeed the ride I hope they do get whatever I causing the problem sorted soon as it really shouldn't be having this much downtime, very strange indeed. There was rumours of Merlin adding more GCI's however I wouldn't be surprised if they have been cancelled due to the issue's they've been having with Wicker Man.
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I doubt its the effects.

It is possible that they are just being very cautious. Ever since the Smiler incident I think they fully check over things for any reasonable downtime.
 
Jaybomuso said:
Yeah, makes sense. I am visiting next week and it's the only ride I've never been on (not been to the park for about 5 years) so I need to make sure I get a good ride on it!
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Wait until the end of the day when it’ll be running at it’s fastest, and try and get a back row seat. The intensity is insane!
 
s_g_k said:
Wait until the end of the day when it’ll be running at it’s fastest, and try and get a back row seat. The intensity is insane!
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Yes 100% never ride Wicker Man in the morning @Jaybomuso it is so much better in the afternoon. I had my best ever ride on it last time I went and it was great: Fast, quick and to be ffair a decent amount of airtime.
 
WM is back on 3 trains

Was great to see the preshow again yesterday, I'd forgotten just how impressive it is. It does cause a few issues though due to the lack of space between the room and the ride - they might need to tweak the procedures slightly to ensure it runs smoothly on 3 trains. We were right at the back and couldn't get out after the show ended (no space) and even so they only just had enough people to keep the ride running until the next group came through. The back 4 bays were empty as the train was rolling in, but were filled by the time the gates opened.
 
I'm very glad it's back. I wasn't too bothered riding it without if I'm honest as it's an important part of the experience and the coaster itself is anything other than mind blowing in its layout.

But that bit between the pre show and boarding is poorly designed. There's just not enough room there. Would there be enough from to have 2 people waiting behind each bay so 2 trains worth of gusts on the platform?
 
They already do that and it's still barely enough people to keep everything running smoothly.

Part of the problem is how long they take trying to squeeze a few more people into the preshow room in the first place - if they just got the room nearly full and started the show straight away it would probably run more smoothly. For our group they probably wasted a minute or so trying to get 6 more people in but that's not fast enough - if the ride is getting 1000/hr they need 17 people/minute through the preshow. Smaller groups would also reduce the turnaround time as they'd be less likely to have people blocking the exit door.
 
Yes I suppose what they really need is a bit more queue line after the pre show but there isn’t really anywhere to put it. I imagine it has little effect on throughputs though.
 
John said:
They already do that and it's still barely enough people to keep everything running smoothly.

Part of the problem is how long they take trying to squeeze a few more people into the preshow room in the first place - if they just got the room nearly full and started the show straight away it would probably run more smoothly. For our group they probably wasted a minute or so trying to get 6 more people in but that's not fast enough - if the ride is getting 1000/hr they need 17 people/minute through the preshow. Smaller groups would also reduce the turnaround time as they'd be less likely to have people blocking the exit door.
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Knowing Towers, they probably want to run the pre-show with a full load as much as possible to reduce the number of times it runs, in turn reducing running costs. Makes sense really. :)
 
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Skyscraper said:
Knowing Towers, they probably want to run the pre-show with a full load as much as possible to reduce the number of times it runs, in turn reducing running costs. Makes sense really. :)
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What sort of extra costs are they going to inure though? Staff is already there regardless of how many times it runs, electricity is un metered at Towers and the cost of ware and tare would be negligible.

I cannot see many extra costs be incurred from running it more. I suspect the staff believe that by filling it, they are keeping the dispatch area fuller for longer, without compensating for the extra time it takes to put those last few people in.
 
Matt.GC said:
I'm very glad it's back. I wasn't too bothered riding it without if I'm honest as it's an important part of the experience and the coaster itself is anything other than mind blowing in its layout.
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It's layout is nothing special but I think it's still a great fun ride. It really does have that fun factor that I feel some of the coasters at towers lack. Nemesis for example may be a high class thrill ride with tones of force and intensity, but does that necessarily make it fun? It may be one of the best in terms of a thrill ride but are the biggest thrill rides the most fun. I personally get more pleasure and enjoyment from a ride filled with airtime and speed than just really forceful turns
 
Ethan said:
It's layout is nothing special but I think it's still a great fun ride. It really does have that fun factor that I feel some of the coasters at towers lack. Nemesis for an example may be a high class thrill ride with tones of force and intensity, but does that necessarily make it fun?
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I do think nemesis has that fun factor and wicker man 100% does. I think the rides that are lacking it are galactica and spinball .
 
In terms of the discussion about Wicker Man and its fun factor; I’m personally someone who ranks coasters based on fun & rerideability as opposed to out and out intensity, and Wicker Man is definitely my favourite on park, personally!

On a different note, I did Wicker Man today for the first time since they reinstated the pre-show. And in terms of my thoughts on the pre-show on the whole; it’s a mixed bag.

In terms of the positive side; I forgot quite how much I like the show itself and the whole spectacle of it! I still find it incredibly impressive how they’re able to completely plunge the room into darkness and move the curtain aside without you even noticing, and then the projection mapped face is just there! Such an impressive effect, and its general execution really does wow me!

However, I’m not sure on it from a practicality standpoint. I’m not personally a fan of the huge scrum that happens leaving the room; it makes me a bit uncomfortable trying to find my way into the station amongst all the people, and I also had a bit of a scare on one of my rides earlier when I was at the back of the scrum, and the pre-show door tried to shut on me and push me back into the pre-show room! Also, they did appear to be having a few issues with batching at times; I did notice that there were empty rows on some trains, which there never were before.

In spite of this, though, the operations were still phenomenal; trains were regularly hitting the lift hill before the train in front had hit the brake run, and the operators were very rapid at checking lap bars! I calculated the throughput at 985pph; a slight decrease compared to some of my preshow-less visits, but still above the 952pph theoretical! Also, this could have just been bad luck; the average hit 1,089pph at one point, so the pre-show’s return is clearly causing no major issues!

On a side note; my mum and dad were really not keen on the pre-show’s return at all. My mum’s exact words to me after seeing it again were “Meh. That literally adds nothing besides a few additional minutes onto our wait time to get on the ride and a scrum to get into the station”, and both of my parents were mystified as to why everyone on here was so excited to see the pre-show return…
 
Matt N said:
On a side note; my mum and dad were really not keen on the pre-show’s return at all. My mum’s exact words to me after seeing it again were “Meh. That literally adds nothing besides a few additional minutes onto our wait time to get on the ride and a scrum to get into the station”, and both of my parents were mystified as to why everyone on here was so excited to see the pre-show return…
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I wasn't... I can agree in the sense that its a faf and just adds more time on. It's not comfortable either standing in a room so hot, clammy and congested, pandemic or not. It was good to see it again but it does ruining rerideability as watching the same thing over and over just puts me off
 
Ethan said:
It was good to see it again but it does ruining rerideability as watching the same thing over and over just puts me off
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The pre-show was designed to enhance the experience - mainly for the majority of guests who will get to ride it as a once or twice a year treat; perhaps even less. They couldn't care less about geeks who whore rides repetitively when designing these sorts of things., and rightly so.

Personally, I'd rather see the Wicker Man's pre-show over and over again than stand in the fob-off-tical illusion room in The Smiler's queue.
 
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